Monday September 6, 2010 6:54 pm

EXOGEAR Exolife iPhone 4 battery case review

Since the iPhone 4 form factor was such a radical redesign from the iPhone 3GS, one annoyance was that cases fitted for the previous device simply don’t fit the new one. Makes sense, but for us that meant parting with our Mophie Juice Pack, which we’ve been rocking for a couple of years. The great thing about it is that it’s basically a case that doubles the power of your iPhone, and it’s indispensable when you are out on the road or traveling. Mophie’s been saying that an iPhone 4 case is coming soon, but they’ve been scant on details, and it looks like a company called EXOGEAR has beat them to the punch with the Exolife iPhone 4 Rechargeable Battery Case. We’ve been using it for a while, and have our thoughts for you after the jump.

We weren’t too familiar with EXOGEAR and their products before we got the Exolife battery case, but we’d been searching for external battery cases since the iPhone 4 launched, since we are often out and about and don’t feel like turning off the 3G, WI-Fi, and Bluetooth antennas while also turning down the screen brightness to conserve battery life when things start looking bleak. When we got word of the Exolife case, we had to at least give it a shot.

The EXOGEAR Exolife battery case houses a 1500mAH Lithium-ion polymer battery that virtually doubles the battery life of your iPhone 4, which already has a great battery as it is—definitely much improved over the iPhone 3GS. The company gets all fancy with naming technologies that the case offers that are really just standard, but here’s the breakdown:

ExoClear: This is what they are basically calling the hard shell that goes around the edge of the iPhone 4. It’s like a hard, clear bumper case. It eliminates any signal interference that would occur with touching the external antenna in the wrong spot.

ExoSync: No clue why this even needs a fancy name, but the case does have a mini-USB port on it. You use this to charge the device, and you can also keep the iPhone in there to charge both at the same time. If you connect it to a computer, you can even sync the iPhone while it’s in the case, which is handy.

ExoSave: This refers to the fact that the battery case will automatically turn off when not in use, which is actually a nice feature since the iPhone 4 will use more power when connected to an active power source. So the case will only kick in when needed.

So, is it worth it? The device costs $89, which is pretty much half the price of a subsidized 16GB iPhone 4. However, if you rely on your device for your email, phone calls, texts, and the myriad of apps to actually conduct business and stay in contact with the world, then you know what it’s like to go low on battery and get that panic. The Exolife case performed as expected, and we think it would be really difficult to run out of battery in a given day when you leave the house with a fully charged iPhone 4 and Exolife case. We were impressed enough that we definitely recommend the device to anyone. Sure, the ability to sync with iTunes and the bumper are nice, but make no mistake, this thing is all about powering your iPhone 4 and keeping it juiced up, and it does the job well.